Oscar Nominated Best Films of 2011

Oscar Nominated Best Films of 2011

Academy Awards are the highest honor for excellence in film industry. And when the list of Best Picture nominees rolls out - rest assured, there will be some masterpieces in the running.

We give you a lowdown on the movies which are running for Best Motion Picture category for the 84th Academy Awards to be held on February 26, 2012.

Credits: With inputs from Oscar.go.com

The Artist

Genre - Romantic Drama
Director – Michel Hazanavicius
Producer – Thomas Langmann
Actors - Jean Dujardin , Bérénice Bejo

As the era of silent films draws to a close, two actors find their careers and their relationship influenced by the coming of talking pictures. While popular screen star George Valentin resists the transition to sound, young Peppy Miller embodies a modern age that is leaving Valentin behind.

Awards Won - 7 BAFTAs and 6 Golden Globes
Oscar Nominations - 10 including Best Actor & Best Supporting Actress

The Descendants

Genre – Comedy Drama
Director – Alexander Payne
Producers – Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Actors - George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges

The complexities of life, death and family relations challenge a man faced with losing his wife. When Elizabeth King is left comatose following an accident, her husband Matt finds himself thrust into the unfamiliar role of caregiver to their two daughters, while at the same time facing a difficult financial decision that may put him at odds with other family members.

Awards Won - 2 Golden Globes and 17 other Awards
Oscar Nominations - 5 including Best Director & Best Actor

The Help

Genre – Drama
Director – Alexander Payne
Producers – Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, Brunson Green
Actors - Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney

In the racially charged climate of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963, a young white Southerner convinces a group of African-American maids to relate their experiences working in white households. The stories they share reflect the devastating social inequality governing every aspect of life in Jackson, and place the women at risk of reprisals from their employers.

Awards Won - 1 BAFTA and 37 other Awards from different Award guilds and Associations
Oscar Nominations - 4 Including Best Actress

War Horse

Genre – War Epic
Director – Steven Spielberg
Producers – Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
Actors - Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis

The horrors of war are seen through the eyes of a valiant horse whose young owner must relinquish him to the army at the start of World War I. Separated from the farmer's son who has raised and trained him, Joey enters the war as a cavalry horse and is soon plunged into the nightmarish heart of the conflict.

Awards Won - 4 Awards from different Award guilds and Associations
Oscar Nominations - 6 including Best Cinematography

Midnight In Paris

Genre – Romantic Comedy
Director – Woody Allen
Producers – Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Jaume Roures
Actors - Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard

On a trip to Paris with his fiancée, a screenwriter is filled with nostalgia for the Paris of the 1920s, when artists and writers flocked to the City of Light in a celebrated period of creativity. For Gil, the romance of that bygone era exerts a pull that places him increasingly at odds with his impatient, unimaginative future wife.

Awards Won - 1 Golden Globe & 5 Other Awards
Oscar Nominations - 4 Including Best Director

Hugo

Genre – 3D Family Mystery
Director – Martin Scorsese
Producers – Graham King, Timothy Headington, Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp
Actors - Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Richard Griffiths

Hugo Cabret is a young Parisian orphan who lives hidden away in the vast Gare Montparnasse train station. When he is not eluding the station's watchful inspector, secretly keeping its many clocks running, or tinkering with a mechanical figure that belonged to his father, Hugo observes the lives of the people who work in the station... including an irascible toy shop owner named Georges Méliès

Awards Won - 2 BAFTAs, 1 Golden Globe and 17 other awards
Oscar Nominations - 11 including Best Director

Moneyball

Genre – Biographical Sports Drama
Director – Bennett Miller
Producers – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt
Actors - Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Following a devastating loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 playoffs, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his assistant, Peter Brand, devise a statistics-based formula for choosing potential players. Uncertain of his chances of success and following a plan that flouts conventional baseball wisdom, Beane sets out to rebuild his team.

Awards Won - 8 Awards from different Award guilds and Associations
Oscar Nominations - 6 Including Best Actor

The Tree Of Life

Genre – Drama
Director – Terrence Malick
Producers – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad
Actors - Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain

A middle-aged man's contemplation of the pattern and meaning of his life is interwoven with moments from his childhood in a small Texas town. As Jack O'Brien and his two younger brothers grow up, they are shaped by both the nurturing love of their mother and their demanding father's strict discipline and unyielding expectations.

Awards Won - 61 Awards from different Award guilds and Associations
Oscar Nominations - 3 Including Best Director

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Genre – Drama
Director – Stephen Daldry
Producer – Scott Rudin
Actors - Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow

A young boy who may have Asperger's syndrome must deal with the loss of his father on September 11. When eleven-year-old Oskar discovers a key among his father's possessions, he becomes convinced that finding the lock it opens will help him understand the tragedy of his father's death.

Awards Won - 3 Awards from different Award guilds and Associations
Oscar Nominations - 2 Including Best Supporting Actor